Patient on way to hospital jumps out of ambulance, dies

(MCT) — A man being taken to a Far Northwest Side hospital died after he jumped out of the ambulance that was carrying him there, authorities said.

Ramiro Reynoso, 20, appeared to be incoherent when someone saw him seated in a running vehicle parked near Mannheim and Irving Park roads about 5:30 a.m. and called for help, according to the Cook County medical examiner's office.

Reynoso was placed in an ambulance, but during the trip to Resurrection Medical Center, 7435 W. Talcott Ave., he jumped out and into the street in the 5900 block of North Oriole Avenue, causing him to suffer major head injuries, according to the medical examiner's office.

Reynoso, of the 4400 block of North Kedzie Avenue, was pronounced dead at 6:40 a.m. at Resurrection, according to the medical examiner's office.

Reynoso was strapped in a gurney being treated when he told the medics, one of whom was treating him in the back of the ambulance and another who was driving, that he wanted to vomit, said Chicago Fire Department spokesman Larry Langford, citing preliminary information.

"So they would have handed him the vessel and unbuckled the top strap as he sat up in order to deal with it," Langford said.

But somehow he also got the leg straps off, opened the back door of the ambulance and jumped out, he said.

The straps are not designed to keep someone captive, he said. "It's not something you can't take off yourself. They are there for the patient's own safety."

The fire department and police continue to investigate the incident, he said.

"Our sympathies go out to his family," Langford said.

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